SCI/TECH: US military creates second Earth

The US army and gaming company There are currently working on a vitual Earth. It will be based on a database of real-world terrain, the first version of the second Earth should be finished by September.

news.bbc.co.uk...

The ambitious project aims to help the US Army plan future conflicts which are unlikely to involve set-piece battles and instead be smaller in scale.

Details of the project were revealed by Robert Gehorsam, a senior vice president at There, during a lengthy interview posted on the Homelan Fed gaming website.

Mr Gehorsam said the world being created will not be a game but instead will be a "massively multi-user persistent environment" that will model real world physics as closely as possible.

The emphasis in the artificial Earth will be on human interaction rather than conflicts involving lots of military hardware.

He said combat will be a part of the game but it is also intended to let the Army simulate intelligence work as well as patrols, planning and working with indigenous populations.

Can we play with them ?

I hope that one day the technology for these types of virtual worlds will be much cheaper therefore giving the rest of us a chance of taking advantage of the possibilities

Originally posted by ultra_phoenix
Can we play with them ?

Sure you can. www.there.com...

I tried it a while back, when it was still in beta testing mode. Looks like it could become something cool.

Originally posted by ultra_phoenix
Can we play with them ?

I would sure like to